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Contestants are to recreate one of the default Warcraft 3 races, be it Human / Orc / Undead / Night Elf / Naga. Your submission must fit your chosen theme and share similar concepts with the original race.
- 1st place: 75 reputation points
- 2nd place: 50 reputation points
- 3rd place: 25 reputation points
- Entry: 5 reputation points
- Judge: 15 reputation points per entry
The three winning teams will receive an award icon, representing the winning entry.
Theme | How well the various elements of the Faction (including aesthetics, gameplay & design) fit together in a thematic manner such that they feel like they are representative of the given Faction, as well as that of the chosen Contest Theme. Well-fitting & polished aesthetics which complement a cohesive theme will be graded well; poorly-considered or lacking thematic elements will result in a poor score. | /10 |
Gameplay | How well the various elements of the Faction work together to achieve the tactical synergy & gameplay style the Faction has, as well as how efficiently each element performs its particular function. Strategic systems that endow an identity to the Faction, comprehensive & well-though-out roles which complement a cohesive Faction will be graded well; ill-considered, insufficient or over-compensating roles will lose points. | /10 |
Balance | Indicates how comparable the Faction is in terms of 'playability'; i.e. the ideal Faction should win/lose 50% of the time against others of it's class. Overpowered or Underpowered units/heroes/abilities/etc will result in a poor score; properly balanced elements will result in a good score. | /5 |
Creativity | How original the design of the Faction is in terms of innovative ideas, clever implementations, or creative concepts. Innovation and creativity will be rewarded; extensive re-use of existing elements in vanilla factions & poor originality will result in a poor score. | /15 |
| /40 |
- Judgement: 70%
- Poll: 30%
FinalScore = (30*Reached_Votes/POSSIBLE_VOTES) + (70*Average_Judge_Score/POSSIBLE_SCORE)
MyPad received a 10% penalty for updating his entry during the poll.
MyPad received a 10% penalty for updating his entry during the poll.
Theme 9/10
You've expanded on the traditional Naga aesthetic, and thrown in some Greek mythology with Stone Gaze. Abilities have a common connection as well through Night Power. Speaking of power this race seems to be generally hard hitting which fits what I think of for Naga. The Reef Singer provided good options for countering multiple types of enemy units in a straightforward and interesting way.
Gameplay 7/10
Watery Gates are a refreshing (har) mechanic. However I want the option to choose which gate will be used in the event I proxy build. There's too many spells with multiple effects and interactions to consider, almost all 25 unit spells fall into this. In large battles it became hard to track what was going on.
Balance 3/5
Resilience is frustrating to play against as there is no indication of what point the cycle it is. The night time healing is way too high. If I'm trying to Cripple I want to maximize the affective time. Overall the durations on some spells are too much such as Terrorize. Thunderstorm is an example of un-counterable damage because it's not summoning. Ocean Nexus has a similar issue in providing global un-counterable damage - I'd stick to positive buffs. Overall this race hits way to hard, especially at night.
Creativity 12/15
The spawning system, and Night Power are unique entries to the Naga race and you've integrated them well. You've created a host of abilities that often seem original but in some cases are slightly different takes on vanilla abilities such as Terrorize. Not that this is an enormous issue but there are opportunities for creating units for specific purposes the way you did with the Reef Singer.
Total Score 31/40
Notes:
I got 201 Night Power
Static Shock, and Water Shield have a buff stacking issue on the Status bar
You've expanded on the traditional Naga aesthetic, and thrown in some Greek mythology with Stone Gaze. Abilities have a common connection as well through Night Power. Speaking of power this race seems to be generally hard hitting which fits what I think of for Naga. The Reef Singer provided good options for countering multiple types of enemy units in a straightforward and interesting way.
Gameplay 7/10
Watery Gates are a refreshing (har) mechanic. However I want the option to choose which gate will be used in the event I proxy build. There's too many spells with multiple effects and interactions to consider, almost all 25 unit spells fall into this. In large battles it became hard to track what was going on.
Balance 3/5
Resilience is frustrating to play against as there is no indication of what point the cycle it is. The night time healing is way too high. If I'm trying to Cripple I want to maximize the affective time. Overall the durations on some spells are too much such as Terrorize. Thunderstorm is an example of un-counterable damage because it's not summoning. Ocean Nexus has a similar issue in providing global un-counterable damage - I'd stick to positive buffs. Overall this race hits way to hard, especially at night.
Creativity 12/15
The spawning system, and Night Power are unique entries to the Naga race and you've integrated them well. You've created a host of abilities that often seem original but in some cases are slightly different takes on vanilla abilities such as Terrorize. Not that this is an enormous issue but there are opportunities for creating units for specific purposes the way you did with the Reef Singer.
Total Score 31/40
Notes:
I got 201 Night Power
Static Shock, and Water Shield have a buff stacking issue on the Status bar
Theme 9/10
I love the various poses Lay Brother's do as they are idling at their Shanty or training at each building type, it's a solid detail. The Christian/Crusaders vibe is present in all the units.
Gameplay 6/10
Not being able to shift build with multiple tents selected is annoying. Being able to research and train at the same time speeds up teching enormously and is appreciated. As interesting as Exorcism is targeting a single race is too niche, the flavor should read as targeting non-believers. It would make sense for all units to have Pray since Faith is such a strong thematic element to this race. I'm not sure I see the value in Tents other than offering protection from harass, and they add a lot of complexity to the build process. I didn't see a way to cancel a unit in production. Having the Altar of Eulogy be the target for Praying is a bit odd as it somewhat encourages me to build more than one. I enjoyed stacking Goldenwill and Aftershock on my Vindicators and Disciples and tossing them into combat. Trample creates an odd incentive to micro Cavaliers out of combat briefly.
The most significant issue here is how the economy gets disrupted by the need to lose workers to Tents, and being unable to harvest lumber without a lumberjack. Both of these could have been thought about more. Because of these issues it was difficult to get going quickly, leaving me behind in creeping and general army production.
Balance 3/5
As much as I enjoy the concept of units having a second life is problematic. The Tauren Chieftan and Phoenix are easily recognized and understood. Having a number of Vindicators and Warrior Angels mixed into my army creates a lot of unknown for my opponent. I think the complexity of training units offsets the advantage of dual training + research. Faith is essentially a resource the enemy player can do nothing about once it has grown yet provides a global buff to all units. Further I just started training Union Missionary's and having the immediately Pilgrimage.
Creativity 11/15
The Faith resource and training system are engaging. Generally abilities are interesting although they are sometimes based heavily on standard spells such as Bolts of Heaven. There wasn't anything that stood out as an exciting ability or interaction though.
Total Score 29/40
Notes:
I wasn't able to get 100% Faith using Pray, and there should be an added benefit if I do. I was also able to use Pilgrimage to get to 189% although the stat bonus stops at 100%.
Gallant Spear can be charged by attacking your buildings
I love the various poses Lay Brother's do as they are idling at their Shanty or training at each building type, it's a solid detail. The Christian/Crusaders vibe is present in all the units.
Gameplay 6/10
Not being able to shift build with multiple tents selected is annoying. Being able to research and train at the same time speeds up teching enormously and is appreciated. As interesting as Exorcism is targeting a single race is too niche, the flavor should read as targeting non-believers. It would make sense for all units to have Pray since Faith is such a strong thematic element to this race. I'm not sure I see the value in Tents other than offering protection from harass, and they add a lot of complexity to the build process. I didn't see a way to cancel a unit in production. Having the Altar of Eulogy be the target for Praying is a bit odd as it somewhat encourages me to build more than one. I enjoyed stacking Goldenwill and Aftershock on my Vindicators and Disciples and tossing them into combat. Trample creates an odd incentive to micro Cavaliers out of combat briefly.
The most significant issue here is how the economy gets disrupted by the need to lose workers to Tents, and being unable to harvest lumber without a lumberjack. Both of these could have been thought about more. Because of these issues it was difficult to get going quickly, leaving me behind in creeping and general army production.
Balance 3/5
As much as I enjoy the concept of units having a second life is problematic. The Tauren Chieftan and Phoenix are easily recognized and understood. Having a number of Vindicators and Warrior Angels mixed into my army creates a lot of unknown for my opponent. I think the complexity of training units offsets the advantage of dual training + research. Faith is essentially a resource the enemy player can do nothing about once it has grown yet provides a global buff to all units. Further I just started training Union Missionary's and having the immediately Pilgrimage.
Creativity 11/15
The Faith resource and training system are engaging. Generally abilities are interesting although they are sometimes based heavily on standard spells such as Bolts of Heaven. There wasn't anything that stood out as an exciting ability or interaction though.
Total Score 29/40
Notes:
I wasn't able to get 100% Faith using Pray, and there should be an added benefit if I do. I was also able to use Pilgrimage to get to 189% although the stat bonus stops at 100%.
Gallant Spear can be charged by attacking your buildings
Theme 9/10This race is outlandish, bizarre, and fantastic. The Chromium Blossom is one of the more interesting units providing significant utility. Missile Rain is ridiculous. Abilities are interesting and share the "tech wizard" design.
Gameplay 8/10
Making Nanohearts also a defensive structure by default makes them a target. Typically enemy players will ignore Farms after the early game as they aren't worth the time. Nanohearts are now a meaningful threat and so I risk losing my food production and feel the need to tower near them. Shocking Lightening has the same issue of not placing a buff on the enemy unit or providing any indication that it has been cast. Generally with this race understanding what is going on is an issue which is mostly due to lack of visuals/buffs rather than critical design flaws.
Balance 3/5
Salvage is dangerous as it's a snowball mechanic. Generally in RTS you have an opportunity to recover after losing an engagement, which this ability negates to a degree. It's hard to gauge the impact though from my limited playtests. These units all hit incredibly hard. The costs are high but the Judas Artillery in particular is a monster. The Extreme Protocols Center is useful, but it I would shy away from spells that affect enemy units globally. In particular there's no VFX that indicates that Blossom Burst was fired on the structure.
Creativity 13/15
While the general tone is exciting there are some spells that are clearly based on vanilla abilities with a slight twist, Pressure for example. I want to see more out of the Phoenix Skystalker - perhaps it explodes into the Phoenix's that pummel the ground as a single use unit. There's a lot of opportunity on your race for these interactions due to the absurd nature of it. Explosion Toads is a joy to use, although I would have them automatically taunt.
Total Score 33/40
Notes:
Sun Shield is missing it's buff and appears to sometimes kill the Blightcleaner after 20 seconds
Gameplay 8/10
Making Nanohearts also a defensive structure by default makes them a target. Typically enemy players will ignore Farms after the early game as they aren't worth the time. Nanohearts are now a meaningful threat and so I risk losing my food production and feel the need to tower near them. Shocking Lightening has the same issue of not placing a buff on the enemy unit or providing any indication that it has been cast. Generally with this race understanding what is going on is an issue which is mostly due to lack of visuals/buffs rather than critical design flaws.
Balance 3/5
Salvage is dangerous as it's a snowball mechanic. Generally in RTS you have an opportunity to recover after losing an engagement, which this ability negates to a degree. It's hard to gauge the impact though from my limited playtests. These units all hit incredibly hard. The costs are high but the Judas Artillery in particular is a monster. The Extreme Protocols Center is useful, but it I would shy away from spells that affect enemy units globally. In particular there's no VFX that indicates that Blossom Burst was fired on the structure.
Creativity 13/15
While the general tone is exciting there are some spells that are clearly based on vanilla abilities with a slight twist, Pressure for example. I want to see more out of the Phoenix Skystalker - perhaps it explodes into the Phoenix's that pummel the ground as a single use unit. There's a lot of opportunity on your race for these interactions due to the absurd nature of it. Explosion Toads is a joy to use, although I would have them automatically taunt.
Total Score 33/40
Notes:
Sun Shield is missing it's buff and appears to sometimes kill the Blightcleaner after 20 seconds
Theme 9/10
Restore Gold Mine jumps out immediately as a likely bad idea due to balance concerns but as it turns out this race strip-mines everything so these mechanics are necessary. Sales Talk is a riot, I love the Bandit sound set usage and clever pitches. The text disappears too fast in some cases. Corporate Trap, and Thanatos' Creed are interesting in providing a possible downside that fits right into the idea of corporate politics.
Gameplay 7/10
Because units help in resource collection the incredible costs end up being a non-issue. I've never seen anything similar to Tax Rebate before, although it may be hard to detect by the enemy player as it's global. There seem to be a number of bugs and tooltips are wrong in some cases so I wasn't always sure of what was happening. Resource gathering was a constant concern. Typically you toss workers on your mineral line and other than making sure it's optimal/defending harass you don't pay attention again. It may require too much player input here.
Balance 3/5
Stealing a neutral buildings from the map is something I would avoid. It means you can deny enemy players access to Tavern heroes, or important items such as Boots. There's no negative to losing a Void Reguvenator since units inside at death aren't stunned. Tax Rebate should be AoE rather than global. Generally there's a lot of issues with communicating to the enemy player how/why you are gaining gold. Further the ability to generate gold is dangerous for balance. Transmute and Pillage work because they have well defined limitations.
Creativity 12/15
You captured the generally poor nature of corporate society in a humorous way here, including a few ideas I've never seen before. I want to see the same depth of thought applied to all the units though rather than relying on vanilla spells such as Ensnare and Demolish.
Total Score 31/40
Restore Gold Mine jumps out immediately as a likely bad idea due to balance concerns but as it turns out this race strip-mines everything so these mechanics are necessary. Sales Talk is a riot, I love the Bandit sound set usage and clever pitches. The text disappears too fast in some cases. Corporate Trap, and Thanatos' Creed are interesting in providing a possible downside that fits right into the idea of corporate politics.
Gameplay 7/10
Because units help in resource collection the incredible costs end up being a non-issue. I've never seen anything similar to Tax Rebate before, although it may be hard to detect by the enemy player as it's global. There seem to be a number of bugs and tooltips are wrong in some cases so I wasn't always sure of what was happening. Resource gathering was a constant concern. Typically you toss workers on your mineral line and other than making sure it's optimal/defending harass you don't pay attention again. It may require too much player input here.
Balance 3/5
Stealing a neutral buildings from the map is something I would avoid. It means you can deny enemy players access to Tavern heroes, or important items such as Boots. There's no negative to losing a Void Reguvenator since units inside at death aren't stunned. Tax Rebate should be AoE rather than global. Generally there's a lot of issues with communicating to the enemy player how/why you are gaining gold. Further the ability to generate gold is dangerous for balance. Transmute and Pillage work because they have well defined limitations.
Creativity 12/15
You captured the generally poor nature of corporate society in a humorous way here, including a few ideas I've never seen before. I want to see the same depth of thought applied to all the units though rather than relying on vanilla spells such as Ensnare and Demolish.
Total Score 31/40
Theme 7/10
The music really helped nail this down in the first few minutes. Lyrics aren't the best for a RTS though and as time passed I had to lower the volume. It eventually cut off though. Overall I wanted to see more integration of the water and ghost ideas outside of tooltips and icons.
Gameplay 6/10
This is a basic Human race in terms of play style. It wasn't clear to me that Discouragment and Hunters Mark were single use. The only major standout is Eternal Hate. I pumped out a ton of footmen and gunners and overwhelmed the AI with respawning units. This actually speaks to the theme of crushing waves.
Balance 2/5
Eternal Hate melts armies. I am essentially given 2x my army, and they have 15% Evasion. Landships are also extremely good for base harass since Explosion deals damage to buildings. Tier3 AI Orc armies were destroyed in ~20 seconds with about 1/3 of my units surviving.
Creativity 8/15
Many of the spells are based closely on vanilla abilities: Defend, Strong Blow, Hunters Mark, Power of Water, etc. Eternal Hate and Aqua Support are improvements from there but overall not a great deal of thought seems to have been put into many abilities. This is a good starting point. Go deeper (har) with the theme into units. Maybe the gunner fires water bullets for example.
Total Score 23/40
Notes:
There are many tooltip bugs, and descriptions that don't communicate what is happening.
The music really helped nail this down in the first few minutes. Lyrics aren't the best for a RTS though and as time passed I had to lower the volume. It eventually cut off though. Overall I wanted to see more integration of the water and ghost ideas outside of tooltips and icons.
Gameplay 6/10
This is a basic Human race in terms of play style. It wasn't clear to me that Discouragment and Hunters Mark were single use. The only major standout is Eternal Hate. I pumped out a ton of footmen and gunners and overwhelmed the AI with respawning units. This actually speaks to the theme of crushing waves.
Balance 2/5
Eternal Hate melts armies. I am essentially given 2x my army, and they have 15% Evasion. Landships are also extremely good for base harass since Explosion deals damage to buildings. Tier3 AI Orc armies were destroyed in ~20 seconds with about 1/3 of my units surviving.
Creativity 8/15
Many of the spells are based closely on vanilla abilities: Defend, Strong Blow, Hunters Mark, Power of Water, etc. Eternal Hate and Aqua Support are improvements from there but overall not a great deal of thought seems to have been put into many abilities. This is a good starting point. Go deeper (har) with the theme into units. Maybe the gunner fires water bullets for example.
Total Score 23/40
Notes:
There are many tooltip bugs, and descriptions that don't communicate what is happening.
Theme 10/10
If you had not labeled this race I would have known exactly what you were doing. Everything from art to sound to spell appearance and mechanic design is spot on. The permanent transform for Ancients and their unique abilities fit right in. I enjoyed your takes on the Druids.
Gameplay 9/10
This plays similar to NE. The major difference is that now buildings are potentially far more important in combat as they take their super unit form. The AI wasn't able to deal with them too well, their hitboxes make pathing an army difficult, and if the target is far away you basically have to commit to that attack as movement speed is so slow.
Balance 4/5
Units are hard hitting but the costs involved are appropriate. There may be too many spells that have negative buffs, it's a lot for an enemy player to track.
Creativity 10/15
Contrasting the work put into art, sound, and general feel the abilities are mostly reskinned vanilla spells. Hero abilities vary more. It would have been preferable to see the kind of thought put into the Aspects also extended into spells and abilities. This is an incredibly strong base for a more complex custom race. I'd love to see you continue developing it.
Total Score 33/40
If you had not labeled this race I would have known exactly what you were doing. Everything from art to sound to spell appearance and mechanic design is spot on. The permanent transform for Ancients and their unique abilities fit right in. I enjoyed your takes on the Druids.
Gameplay 9/10
This plays similar to NE. The major difference is that now buildings are potentially far more important in combat as they take their super unit form. The AI wasn't able to deal with them too well, their hitboxes make pathing an army difficult, and if the target is far away you basically have to commit to that attack as movement speed is so slow.
Balance 4/5
Units are hard hitting but the costs involved are appropriate. There may be too many spells that have negative buffs, it's a lot for an enemy player to track.
Creativity 10/15
Contrasting the work put into art, sound, and general feel the abilities are mostly reskinned vanilla spells. Hero abilities vary more. It would have been preferable to see the kind of thought put into the Aspects also extended into spells and abilities. This is an incredibly strong base for a more complex custom race. I'd love to see you continue developing it.
Total Score 33/40
Theme 9/10
I would have preferred to see the same evocation training method used for all units, including heroes. It's quite interesting and helps me visualize what my army is. I definitely get the mystical dark Night Elf feeling across the board though. Abilities and spells from description to icon to effects all fit in quite well.
Gameplay 8/10
There are far too many upgrades. There is some value to a player in reaching the end of a tech tree or line of upgrades. The Sage -> Spirit Owl process is a little off-putting because it's the only instance of this, but it works for this race. I love the Owl's interaction with buildings. Abduct and Tether are brilliant. This is the first time I've seen a Nydus worm ability that worked and felt correctly, evening showing units in cargo. I am a fan of unit transforming abilities but I worry there are too many. Wisp Power can probably be removed, I didn't feel it added a whole lot to unit interactions. Food production is a hassle, Stele needs to make more than 10.
Balance 3/5
A flying hero that has a passive resource generating spell is absolutely OP, although I find her whole kit compelling. I also have a concern that some units can outgrow restrictions that may be necessary, such as the Dusk Raven attacking ground. Pucks are basically a unit removal tool as you can Abduct and fly over deep water where the unit will be trapped forever (or maybe this is the secret grove, har).
Creativity 15/15
All of your abilities are well crafted. Balance and gameplay concerns aside they are compelling to use. Yes the Emerald Corpse is a Nydus but it's also incredibly well integrated into your theme. Germinate, Root Canopy and many other abilities are both interesting and useful.
Total Score 35/40
I would have preferred to see the same evocation training method used for all units, including heroes. It's quite interesting and helps me visualize what my army is. I definitely get the mystical dark Night Elf feeling across the board though. Abilities and spells from description to icon to effects all fit in quite well.
Gameplay 8/10
There are far too many upgrades. There is some value to a player in reaching the end of a tech tree or line of upgrades. The Sage -> Spirit Owl process is a little off-putting because it's the only instance of this, but it works for this race. I love the Owl's interaction with buildings. Abduct and Tether are brilliant. This is the first time I've seen a Nydus worm ability that worked and felt correctly, evening showing units in cargo. I am a fan of unit transforming abilities but I worry there are too many. Wisp Power can probably be removed, I didn't feel it added a whole lot to unit interactions. Food production is a hassle, Stele needs to make more than 10.
Balance 3/5
A flying hero that has a passive resource generating spell is absolutely OP, although I find her whole kit compelling. I also have a concern that some units can outgrow restrictions that may be necessary, such as the Dusk Raven attacking ground. Pucks are basically a unit removal tool as you can Abduct and fly over deep water where the unit will be trapped forever (or maybe this is the secret grove, har).
Creativity 15/15
All of your abilities are well crafted. Balance and gameplay concerns aside they are compelling to use. Yes the Emerald Corpse is a Nydus but it's also incredibly well integrated into your theme. Germinate, Root Canopy and many other abilities are both interesting and useful.
Total Score 35/40
Contest | Poll
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